The Wolf
by evieeden
Summary: Sam's wolf has more of an impact on the man than he realises. Advent story written for 13th December.


**Happy 13****th**** December everyone. We're halfway there! This next advent story was a bit of an experiment for me with the POV, so hopefully it turned out okay and isn't too confusing. Anyway I hope you like it.**

**I adore idealskeptic to bits. Without her, this whole thing would've collapsed about 12 stories ago. And as always, I do not own Twilight.**

**The Wolf**

Emily left early in the Spring. The wolf didn't care.

He liked his mate, of course, had been guided to her by the Gods, but she was somewhat...lacking.

She screeched too much and coated herself in a strange substance that made her smell funny and always backed away from him when he tried to show her affection. He liked her being there, it was nice to have a companion, but when she left he didn't feel particularly bothered by it.

There were others by then – his pack, his brothers, and his cub... He loved them all deeply. They were his family; they were there for him.

So losing his mate hadn't been as devastating as he had anticipated. Instead, it just convinced him that she wasn't worth it. She was too weak; she would have fallen behind anyway. It was best to just let her go.

It had unsettled the pack for a while to have no female. One of his brothers had already found his mate, but it still being the early stages of the bond, he was possessive and hardly ever brought her around.

There was the other female, of course - Leah. The one who smelled like pack. She had been his mate before Emily had come along, and once she had left, the female fought with the wolf's man again.

She wasn't meant for him though.

The man, Sam, didn't understand it, not fully anyway, but the wolf knew.

Leah was an Alpha female – he could sense it. While he was pack Alpha for now, he knew that he was just waiting... Waiting for the true Alpha to phase. It was going to happen any day and he was determined to be ready then, to show his Alpha that he had taken care of his pack well.

But in the meantime, it was just him. Just him and his small but beloved pack. He looked after the other three wolves as best he could and in return they protected their people as best as they were able.

And then there was his cub.

She wasn't a wolf of course, but she was little, just a small girl, and she was his to look after.

His man hadn't understood his obsession at first. Oh sure, he knew that she was vulnerable and he was willing to look for her when she had become lost, abandoned, in the forest, but he had never quite understood what it was that made the wolf want to protect her, to make her part of the pack.

He knew now though.

She was meant for one of his pack, one of his most precious members – his brother.

The man hadn't know that he had a brother, an actual litter mate rather than just a fellow pack mate, but the wolf had known instantly, and he was proved right when the other man, Embry, phased for the first time.

That wasn't until after he had found his cub for the first time, but even then, instinct had told him that the girl was precious, that she was one of them. The wolf knew she had to be protected.

He had found her on a cold September night the year before.

Sam had received a call from the tribe's chief, asking him to join the hunt for the missing girl. Rounding up his pack – then numbering only two others – he had set out to find the girl.

It had been too easy. All they had to do was go to the girl's house and then follow the stench of her and the leech she was friendly with out through the trees. After a while, the scent of the bloodsucker moved in another direction and they were left with just the pure undiluted scent of his cub.

His pack didn't know what was happening. They were concerned by him showing his true form to the girl, in case she tried to run or revealed the tribe's secrets to their enemies.

He wasn't worried though, and in the end, neither was she.

He had snuffled around her prone body, searching for any injuries. Once he was sure that she was unhurt and still breathing, he had stuck his snout into her face to wake her up. He knew that if she stayed out here in the forest, she would be at risk of exposure. It was imperative that she be taken back to her den and warmed up again.

A small part of him wanted to take her back to his den.

He had warmth, food, and his mate would be able to assist him in looking after her. However, his pack mates had protested strongly against that plan, so he had bowed to their judgment and mentally agreed to return her to her sire.

It had been...difficult...handing her over, but he had done it because it was the right thing.

It wasn't the last he was going to see of her - the wolf had already decided that and the man had somewhat reluctantly agreed.

So two weeks later he had traipsed over to the small white house where her den was. There he had found Bella in some distress. Upset, confused and weak, his cub had been unable to look after herself. So he had made the decision to look after her himself.

Sam didn't understand the wolf's interest in his cub, but he was a kind person inside and he could see as well as the wolf could that the girl was in need of help.

Stepping up, he had offered his services to the girl's sire, promising that the wolf and his mate would help take care of her, and Charlie had gratefully taken him up on his offer.

The girl didn't know why he was helping her at first and had even asked him what he was doing. For once, the man had found the words that the wolf couldn't say.

"Because I was struggling once too, and like you, I needed a friend who understood."

Bella had blinked slowly. "You mean you know about...about..."

"About the Cullens," he had replied. "Yes. And about the other cold ones. That's why we're here."

Ignoring the warning glare from his mate, the man had taken the girl out into the backyard and then phased in front of her, showing her that the second part of the old Quileute legends was also true.

The wolf had looked upon the girl, and this time she had been coherent enough to look back.

She had stilled like prey when she first saw him, but she hadn't tried to run which the wolf liked. Neither did she scream or flinch when he then began to slowly approach her.

Instead, her eyes wide, she had tentatively stretched out her hand to him. The wolf had crept forward at the gesture and carefully stuck his nose into her palm, scenting her skin. She had laughed at that, a sharp hesitant noise, but hadn't moved away. Patting him gently on the head, she had taken a step back. He took that as his cue that she wanted to talk to the man again.

And so it had all come out – the cold ones, the spirit warriors and the new pack – and she had taken it all in her stride.

His mate didn't like that though. She had confronted him once he had returned the girl – his cub, the wolf had decided – back to her home, her den.

"Why was Bella Swan here?"

The man had paused. The reasons for his wolf's interest in the girl were still unknown at that point, but enough of the animal's impulses had carried over to his own feelings.

"She needs help, Em."

"But why should you be the one to give it to her. She has friends, family..." she argued.

"No-one who knows about vampires. No-one who gets what she's going through." He tried to make her understand. "She's all alone, Emily, and I'm the one who found her out there in the woods. If I can maybe... I don't know." The man had shook his head. "I'm just trying to do my best by her."

Emily had nodded, but there was a stiffness to her movement. "Fine, but you shouldn't have phased in front of her. You probably scared the poor girl."

The man shook his head. "That's the strangest thing. She wasn't scared one bit, even when I got closer to her." He took a step forward to demonstrate, but his mate flinched back, making him pause mid-step.

An awkward silence had fallen over their tiny house.

Finally his mate had shrugged. "I guess she can come around for dinner some time with the other boys."

At the time that had been enough for him.

His mate may not have approved of the situation, but she was prepared to be accepting and so he was grateful to her.

So the girl, Bella, had become a regular at his den.

He liked having her there, liked knowing where she was, knowing that she was safe and being cared for and fed properly. He also liked the fact that she wasn't afraid of him. It was comforting for him to be able to sit outside with her in his lupine form. Sure, he spent time with her as the man more often than not, but it was the times when it was just the two of them, wolf and girl-cub, that he could fully relax.

His pack mates grew to care for her too over time.

His second, Jared, was laid-back enough that he took to this new member of the pack easily enough. He had barely blinked when informed that the girl was now to be treated as family.

His third, Paul, however, had put up a bit of a fight. Always volatile, he had protested that the girl didn't belong as part of their pack. One good fight had sorted that problem out. The wolf loved all his pack members, was prepared to do almost anything for them, but he refused to permit insubordination.

Eventually, even Paul came to love his cub. She won him over with kindness, and he eventually became just as protective over her as the wolf was.

The wolf's mate never quite came to terms with the other female's presence though.

Emily would stake out her territory in the kitchen, put the other girl down and every day the smell of bitterness on her skin grew stronger.

The wolf didn't like it. He began to find reasons to avoid her.

The man didn't like it either, but he didn't know how to make things better for her. He tried so hard to make her happy, but between the duties of the pack and the presence of the girl-cub, she was never satisfied.

The wolf began to care less for Emily. He was Alpha of the pack – he had duties and responsibilities. As his mate, regardless of her feelings, she needed to understand that, to do her part to make sure the pack ran smoothly.

His cub began to step into his mate's place, providing the support that the other wolves needed.

When questioned, she merely stated that she was "repaying the favour."

The wolf had done it. He had made his cub strong again. He was so proud of her.

And then his brother had phased – his litter mate, Embry – and the reason for the wolf's interest in the cub became glaringly apparent.

Worn and tired, his brother had limped into the den after finally returning to his human form, only to promptly imprint on the wolf's cub.

The wolf had been pleased, self-satisfied almost, but the man had taken one look at his own imprint's face and seen the writing on the wall.

With Bella now cemented permanently as a member of the pack, the wolf's mate had crumbled. There was no chance for Emily anymore that the other female would eventually leave.

She had been willing to stay with Sam, to live with both him and his wolf, but only as long as she was his absolute focus. As the pack and Bella encroached more upon his time, she simply...gave up.

She left in the Spring.

Sam was devastated. The wolf didn't care so much.

He mourned her loss, but he knew that if she could walk away so easily then maybe she would never have been strong enough to stay in the first place.

So the wolf carried on, like before.

He watched over his pack, he watched over their mates, and he watched over the males that would soon become his brothers.

And he watched over his cub.

In the meantime he would wait for a new mate, one who would be strong enough to accept both the wolf and the man.

The wolf had no concept of time.

He could be patient.


End file.
